depends. bounce flash straight up is my preferred choice giving nice even lighting on the dancefloor. or using lil or no flash combined with a flash or two in the corner for the spotlight feels.
depends entirely on the situation - venue, ceiling height, available light, time of day. bounced speedlites, VAMLS, video light, every once in a while a speedlite on a stand.
Can you guys show me some shots of Reception that showed some lighting. I've tried adding strobe but it kill the mood... if I light it less then people dancing are blurred..
As naturally as possible. Optimally a nice subtle bounce fill from an on-camera flash and a big ISO boost to capture the ambient correctly... I see too many light up reception halls like Bush on Baghdad, and I wonder, is that how the couple will remember their dinner? With strobe bombs going off? Not to mention, how accurately are you documenting the scene (if you care about such a concept) if you're blsting every frame with 1600 watt-seconds of "fill"?
firstsupport wrote:
Can you guys show me some shots of Reception that showed some lighting. I've tried adding strobe but it kill the mood... if I light it less then people dancing are blurred..
Turn it down less. Use a slightly higher shutter speed. Use fill on your subject. As most have already replied, there is no one or two ways. You wouldn't light a place with low white ceilings the way you would light a place with dark high ceilings and no close walls. However, the hopeful key is to bounce light from anything you can. Then again you might have to use flash with a diffuser...............
Every venue is different. I love the natural light look if I can get it, if not...AB1600 firing into a softbox with the angle and power changing throughout the event.
As others said, there is no perfect answer to give you.
Depending on each situation, you must decide IF you need light and if so, WHERE and HOW MUCH.
Basically, if you find you need light added to the ambiant to "reach settings" that are optimally better, then you need to meter the room in different locations, choose how you want the room to look (how much ambiant in the images to capture the mood) and then expose for both by tweaking the light to taste. (remember, you're only "adding" some light - not blasting)
In most cases, you will have to shoot in Av or manual and tweak a little as you approach/regress from the light. I usually set things up where my ISO and shutter remain the same and only adjust my Av slightly from location to location.
Generally, we all use our speedlites for fill via bounce or dialed down direct. Allow the strobes to do the work. If it's a huge room, just expect lighting to be all over the map. Shoot n' chimp.
I try to kill any ambient and have at least one blazing speedlite in every shot... I normally have about one on every guest table, and a bank of them in each corner of the hall. I can't figure out why I never get invited back.
I power them way down so I can give any candidates an epileptic fit then I take pictures of them foaming at the mouth.
sejanus wrote:
I absolute hate reception photos that look like studio lighting.
Chalk up another high iso guy here, with a single 580ex in the hotshoe!
Bring on those new cameras with even higher iso's, the higher the better I say,
While this is the case sometimes, I find that some receptions just have horribly boring light. At that point, I consider it my job to make the light myself... http://hofferphotography.com/blogpics/Florida-26.jpg
If adding room lights kills the mood... power them down, use a smaller aperture and a faster shutter speed. It's not TTL anymore. You have to work to get the light the way you want it
Nice. 
